Stud Work At An Office Refit

I've been doing lot's of stud work at a office conversion I've been working on during the weekends. I've put some big walls up, around 12m long and 3m high. 

I do love doing a job like this, a nice big area to work in, plenty of timber and lots to get my teeth into. Lots more work from this job to come! 

Altering The Layout Of A House

A friend and customer of mine does drawings for a living (in fact he did the drawings for my own extension), so I wasn't surprised when I went to do some work on his hous and there wasn't a single drawing to look at! We were completely changing the layout of the upstairs of his house. the upstairs was two bedrooms, a lot of landing space and an airing cupboard. 

New hole into the second bedroom

 He decided that by creating the access to the second bedroom off the stairs he could then use all the landing space and a small amount in the bedroom to create a new bathroom upstairs. It's difficult to explain what he's done without seeing a floor plan but it really works well and makes much better use of space.

An area in the second bedroom where the bath was going to go

handrail and airing cupboard to be removed

New steps built. A job like this takes a surprising amount of time as it's a really fiddly job to do!

Staring to build the bulkhead over the stairs to form the new bathroom and make the most of that space over the stairs that's often wasted.

New door way into the second bedroom, brought out into the room to allow for the steps the other side of the door. I hung the door before plastering or plasterboard so it could just be removed when the plasterer comes and refitted afterwards (saves me a repeat visit)

Studwork for the bath ready to be boarded.

Dan was really pleased with how much I got done in two days, especially considering how much thinking was involved to make sure everything was in the right place and making the best use of space. 

By using someone to redesign the layout of your house it's surprising how much better it can make a house flow and I'd say you'd also add a lot of value as well. His website is here and I really recommend him for any drawing work you need.

An Old Wall Hidden

Not the most interesting post, but I always like to show what sometimes has to happen behind  a blank wall.

Pipework and rough uneven plaster work ment something had to be done about this wall

 The wall in this old house was out of level, the old plasterwork wouldn't provided a key to new plaster and there was pipework to box in.

The timber stud built around the pipework

I decided that the best course of action would be to stud the wall out. This would mean that the new wall would be level and it would also hide all the pipework and the new plasterboard would give the plasterer a much easier job to get a good finish.

All hidden!

Once all this stud work was installed it was time to plasterboard it so hopefully it's never seen again!

I've still quite a bit of work to do in this bathroom but it's only being done on the weekends so not as fast as some of my other jobs.

Building A Walk In Wardrobe

This is a continuation from the Building A Stud Wall Step By Step post I did a while ago. The stud wall was built to divide an odd shaped room into a bedroom with a large walk in wardrobe. The customer wanted two long shelves with hanging rails under and a set of large shelves at the far end.

Finding good fixings was the most important part of fitting these shelves as they're so big they need to be secure



With a timber fixed round the outside I added the timbers to carry the inside edges of the shelves

Check everything is level (I used a laser level around the outside so I was fairly confident!)



Add the MDF forn long shelves and the sides to the rack of shelves at the end, along with timber supports

I also completed the second fix carpentry work hanging the door and fixing the skirting and architrave



All the shelves fitted ready for some varnish



The wardrobe from the outside - looks like it's always been there. Just need to stain the woodwork to match in with the old

A nice job and the customer is really pleased.

 I also agreed to paint/stain it all for the customer so I've made quite a few visits in the evenings to try and get it done but its tricky as I don't get back till late and all my other time is booked up, mind you it's better to be busy than not!

Building A Stud Wall Step By Step

Here's a step by step guide of how I installed a stud wall for a customer yesterday. This is going to make a large walk-in wardrobe with long length shelves and rails

Setting out. Always tricky in a old house. In the end I went square off the wall with the window as it looked right.



The outside frame up. It's essential to get this level. Cut the uprights long enough to wedge the head and sole plate in place.
I screwed these in but I also used a grab adhesive to stick them to the walls, floor and ceiling



Next add the studs that will form the door opening.
Make the opening a couple of mm bigger than the frame you're going to fit

Add the other studs. so that no spacing is wider than 400mm (16").
Also cut out the sole plate where the door is.



Add noggins at to carry the plasterboard joint (1.2m).
Also add the head to the door and an upright to carry the plasterboard

Here I've added extra noggins as I know I've got to fit a large shelve and hanging rail later

Extra noggins give you a solid fixing later in a job



Plasterboard one side of the stud wall



Plasterboard the other side, making sure no screws are left sticking out
(you can add insulating between for sound proofing if you want to)



Add your door lining- take your time with this and make sure it's plumb and not in twist - it will make hanging the door much easier later. This was a hardwood door linning so I countersunk all the screws to accept hardwood pellets to hide the screw heads.

That's as far as I can go for now.

Now I've just got to wait for Sean the plasterer to come and then I can finish off all the trim work (architrave, skirting), hang the door and then add all the shelves and rails that the customer wants.

Stud Work On A Farm

Finished the first stage of a local job yesterday on a farm house. To build a new downstairs toilet as the old one was too small- in fact it was only a couple of feet wide!

The room all stripped out and ready for me to start

 I managed to convince the customer to allow me to decided the height of the ceiling as where he wanted it my head would have been brushing against it the whole time, but was where the old one was. Having it higher meant the room would feel bigger and it also gave me a great fixing for the ceiling on top of the brick wall at the back.

Stud work up

I got the stud work up quite fast once I'd insulated the slopping ceiling, then I installed the ceiling joists, making sure the plasterboard would be supported all the way round.



Ceiling in to provide some storage above

The customer did make me laugh when I was doing the insulating (I'm sure he wont mind me saying why). I accidentally brushed one of his wires he had tapped up out the way with my elbow, a loud bang with a big spark followed, I shouted him over and showed him what had happened

 

"Good job you never made a hole in that pipe when the wires touched it." He said dryly

 

"How about - good job you never killed me!" I replied

 

 He smiled as he spoke "Yeah, that as well..."



Door linings in and the wall plaster boarded ready to be skimmed

The last couple of jobs were uneventful just to plasterboard the walls and install the lining for the door and loft hatch. Making sure the studding was dead level and plumb when I built it meant that installing the lining was a quick job.

Taking the plasterer to see the job today and hopefully finish it all off fairly soon.

How did everyone else spend their Saturday?